How were Tipp so flat when they should have been so up to it?

Will Cork lose again? Again, don’t know: with this crew, it could go either way. Will we be there? Sure when you know it’s bound to be another thriller as they’re involved, definitely.

If that Clare team bus is to see Croke Park later in the summer, it first has to come out of Cork with a result on Sunday.

Both counties have recent and tangible evidence of getting up the steps to lift a national trophy.

In previous games, Clare could merely be accused of missing, rather than blowing, glorious opportunities to beat Limerick. Here they hugely, unmistakably, blew it.

Some wanted to abandon the city stadium during the county's lean years, but the good times are back at the historic ground.

Since May 2022 Clare-Limerick has usurped Tipp-Limerick as the most intriguing and intense rivalry in all of hurling and all of Munster.

This spring – as much as it has felt more like a winter – Clare won the league without Tony Kelly. Others have stepped up and stepped in.

Back when Clare were routinely playing and beating Kilkenny in league finals, the late Jackie O’Gorman was The Man.

The NAC has lost a lot of credibility in this entire saga, with their flawed process and logic and understanding of what constitutes “a serious injustice” as well as the practices and rules concerning last-second free throws.